Palestinians say 36 people killed trying to obtain desperately needed aid
Experts and humanitarian aid workers say Israel's blockade and 20-month military campaign have pushed Gaza to the brink of famine.
At least 163 people have been killed and 1,495 wounded in a number of shootings near aid sites run by the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which are in military zones that are off-limits to independent media.
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The Israeli military has acknowledged firing warning shots on previous occasions at people who it says approached its forces in a suspicious manner.
The foundation says there has been no violence in or around the distribution points themselves. But it has warned people to stay on designated access routes and it paused delivery last week while it held talks with the military on improving safety.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday there is 'meaningful progress' on a possible ceasefire deal that would also return some of the 55 hostages still being held in Gaza, but said it was 'too early to hope'.
Foreign minister Gideon Saar also mentioned on Tuesday that there was progress in ceasefire negotiations.
Mr Netanyahu was meeting with the Israeli negotiating team and the defence minister on Tuesday evening to discuss next steps.
In southern Gaza, at least eight people were killed while trying to obtain aid around Rafah, according to Nasser Hospital.
In northern Gaza, two men and a child were killed and at least 130 were wounded on Tuesday, according to Nader Garghoun, a spokesperson for the al-Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. He said most were being treated for gunshot wounds.
Witnesses told The Associated Press that Israeli forces opened fire at around 2am (midnight BST), several hundred yards from the aid site in central Gaza. Crowds of Palestinians seeking desperately needed food often head to the sites hours before dawn, hoping to beat the crowds.
The Israeli military said it fired warning shots at people it referred to as suspects. It said they had advanced toward its troops hundreds of yards from the aid site prior to its opening hours.
Additionally, three Palestinian medics were killed in an Israeli strike Tuesday in Gaza City, according to the health ministry.
The medics from the health ministry's emergency service were responding to an Israeli attack on a house in Jaffa street in Gaza City when a second strike hit the building, the ministry said.
The Israeli military did not comment on the strike, but said over the past day the air force has hit dozens of targets belonging to Hamas' military infrastructure, including rocket launchers.
The US Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a major Palestinian legal group for prisoners and detainees along with five other charitable entities across the Middle East, Africa and Europe, accusing them of supporting militant groups, including Hamas's military wing, under the pretence of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Those sanctioned include Addameer, a nongovernmental organisation that was founded in 1991 and is based in the city of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian group provides free legal services to Palestinian political prisoners and detainees in Israeli custody and monitors the conditions of their confinement.
The organisation also works with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and is a member of the World Organization Against Torture.
Other entities hit with sanctions Tuesday include the Gaza-based charity Al Weam Charitable Society and its leader; the Turkish charity Filistin Vakfi and its leader; El Baraka Association for Charitable and Humanitarian Work and its leader; The Netherlands-based Israa Charitable Foundation Netherlands and two employees; and The Italy-based Associazione Benefica La Cupola d'Oro.
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The Independent
33 minutes ago
- The Independent
At least 60 killed as Israeli forces continue to fire on Palestinians seeking aid
At least 60 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes and gunfire across Gaza on Wednesday, with several of the victims struck near aid distribution points run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to local Palestinian health authorities. Staff at Shifa and Al-Quds hospitals reported that 25 people were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire before dawn while approaching a food distribution centre near the former Israeli settlement of Netzarim in central Gaza. The Israeli army claimed that its troops fired warning shots at people 'posing a threat' in the area. 'This is despite warnings the area is an active combat zone,' it said, adding that reports of injuries were under review. Later in the day, medics at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said at least 14 more Palestinians had been killed heading towards another GHF site in Rafah. The GHF, which began operating in May, said it distributed around 2.5 million meals on Wednesday alone, bringing the total to more than 16 million thus far. The group, backed by Israel and the US, emphasised the need for civilians to follow passage instructions coordinated with Israeli forces. The GHF also said five of its Palestinian staff were killed in a separate incident which it attributed to an attack by Hamas on a bus west of Khan Younis. 'We will continue our mission to provide critical aid to the people of Gaza,' it said, while expressing fear that some workers might have been taken hostage. According to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, Israel's war on the besieged territory has so far killed more than 55,000 people, mostly women and children. That assault started after nearly 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage during a Hamas raid on southern Israel in October 2023. The Israeli air and ground assault has also left over 127,000 Palestinians injured and likely trapped more under the rubble of destroyed buildings. The UN has refused to coordinate aid through the GHF, criticising its use of private contractors and Israeli military escorts as incompatible with humanitarian principles. It warned that mass displacement and hunger were worsening in Gaza, with the entire population of over two million people at risk of famine. Israel claims that the new aid system prevents Hamas from diverting supplies, but leading aid groups reject that justification saying there is no evidence of large-scale diversion and that the arrangement breaches neutrality. Amid the escalating crisis, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the army and Shin Bet, the domestic intelligence agency, had retrieved the bodies of two more hostages from Khan Younis. One was identified as 59-year-old Yair Yaakov, who was killed during the October assault. His partner and two children were among the hostages later released under a temporary ceasefire. Israel says 53 hostages remain in Gaza, with fewer than half believed to be alive. The latest recoveries bring the total number of hostage bodies retrieved this month to five. Defence minister Israel Katz described the retrieval as a 'complex' operation without providing details. Hamas is demanding full Israeli withdrawal and a lasting ceasefire in exchange for the remaining hostages. It has also offered to transfer power in Gaza to an independent Palestinian committee but has refused to disarm. Mr Netanyahu, however, insists that Israel will pursue the war until Hamas is defeated or exiled. He demands any future ceasefire to be only temporary and facilitate the return of hostages. He has also spoken of facilitating 'voluntary emigration' of Gaza's population, a plan condemned by Palestinians and the international community as ethnic cleansing.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says Hamas killed five workers in bus attack
The new group backed by Israel and the US for aid distribution in Gaza says Hamas attacked a bus transporting some of its Palestinian workers, killing at least five Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said the attack happened on Wednesday night as the bus carrying more than two-dozen workers travelled to a distribution centre in southern Gaza, and that it came after days of threats from BBC cannot independently verify the statement, and Hamas has not commented but it previously denied it had threatened the foundation's system started operating on 26 May, to bypass the United Nations (UN) and other established organisations to distribute aid in Gaza. Since then, its work has been marred by controversy and violence, with deadly incidents happening near its hubs almost every UN, which has refused to co-operate with the system, and aid organisations say it contravenes the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and Wednesday, local doctors said dozens more Palestinians were killed or injured by Israeli soldiers as they tried to access food at the foundation's distribution Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said the attack followed days of threats from Hamas - and that they feared some workers had been "taken hostage"."We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms," it said in a Israeli military did not immediately corroborate the allegation, but shared part of the GHF's statement, adding: "Hamas will stop at nothing to maintain control and prevent the effective delivery of aid". On Saturday, the GHF accused Hamas of making threats that "made it impossible" to operate in Gaza. Hamas denied this and said the GHF operation had "utterly failed on all levels". The GHF's mechanism has been criticised as insufficient, as a limited amount of supplies is being handed out, and inhumane, as it requires people to travel to crowded distribution hubs, at great every day since it began operating, there have been deadly shootings near one or other of the four centres it has opened, by Israeli soldiers and armed Hamas-run health ministry says more than 200 people have been killed and nearly 2,000 others injured while trying to reach areas designated for aid distribution during that Wednesday, at least 25 people were killed near a GHF convoy in Gaza's Netzarim corridor, according to two hospitals in Gaza City. The GHF had earlier said that 43,000 food parcels were handed out "without incident" across US and Israel say delivering aid through the GHF will prevent it being stolen by Hamas. The UN says this is not a widespread issue, while Hamas denies doing it.
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- The Guardian
Israeli forces kill at least 60 Palestinians seeking food aid in Gaza, health officials say
Israeli forces killed at least 60 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, most of them as they were seeking food from a US-Israeli distribution scheme, according to local health authorities. Medical officials said at least 25 people were killed and dozens wounded as they approached a food distribution centre run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), near Netzarim in central Gaza. Later in the day, at least 14 people were killed by Israeli gunfire as they were moving towards another GHF distribution site, in Rafah, at Gaza's southern border. On Tuesday Israeli troops killed 17 Palestinians around GHF sites. The mass casualties came as the bodies of two Israel hostages were recovered from Gaza by the army and the internal security service, Shin Bet. Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a statement naming one of the dead hostages as Yair Yaakov, a 59-year-old father of three who was abducted and killed by Hamas in its 7 October 2023 attack in which 1200 Israelis were killed and triggered the conflict. Netanyahu said the second hostage whose remains were recovered, could not yet be named. There are thought to be 53 Israelis hostages still in Gaza, but most of them are believed to be dead. The Gaza health authorities said on Wednesday the Palestinian death toll over the 20 months of conflict had passed 55,000. The health ministry was part of the Hamas government, but is staffed by medical professionals and its casualty statistics are generally regarded as reliable by the UN and other global organisations. In recent days, more and more of the fatalities have been associated with GHF food distribution. On Wednesday, a New York-based law group, the Center for Constitutional Rights, warned the GHF of its 'potential legal liability for complicity in Israel's war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against Palestinians'. 'As Palestinians now face mass starvation, Israel has teamed up with GHF to make accessing food not only dangerous and potentially deadly but also a tool of forced displacement,' its senior staff attorney, Katherine Gallagher, said. 'If GHF continues its militarised aid operations, it must be prepared to face the legal consequences, whether in the United States or beyond.' The Israeli government and armed forces are now under scrutiny by the International Court of Justice, on allegations of genocide, in part because of the use of food as a weapon against the occupied territory's 2.2 million people. Humanitarian experts had previously warned that the GHF scheme or distributing food from a restricted number of heavily militarised sites would be highly dangerous for people seeking food, forcing them to cross combat zones. The organisation's first executive director, Jake Wood, resigned last month, saying its plan ran counter to 'humanitarian principles'. Last week, a US consulting firm, Boston Consulting Group which had helped set up the GHF, severed ties with the organisation. Johnnie Moore, an evangelical leader and religious adviser to Donald Trump, with a record of outspoken support for Israel and minimal experience of humanitarian work, was appointed the new chair of the GHF. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that its forces had fired 'warning shots' overnight towards a group it said posed a threat to troops 'This is despite warnings that the area is an active combat zone. The IDF is aware of reports regarding individuals injured; the details are under review,' the IDF said. The GHF told the Reuters news agency it was unaware of Wednesday's incidents but added that it was working closely with Israeli authorities to ensure safe passage routes are maintained, and that it was essential for Palestinians to closely follow instructions. 'Ultimately, the solution is more aid, which will create more certainty and less urgency among the population,' it said. 'There is not yet enough food to feed everyone in need in Gaza. Our current focus is to feed as many people as is safely possible within the constraints of a highly volatile environment.' In a social media post on Wednesday, Moore said he had visited a GHF packing and distribution centre in Israel on Wednesday and claimed the organisation provided 2.5 million meals on Wednesday bringing to 16 million meals distributed in Gaza since it started operations on 27 May. Also on Wednesday, an Israeli civil rights group, Adalah, said that one of an international group of activists detained by Israel on a ship in the eastern Mediterranean, was being held in solitary confinement. In a statement it said that a Brazilian protester, Tiago Ávila, was being held in isolation in Ayalon prison 'due to his ongoing hunger and thirst strike, which he began two days ago'. Another activist detained on the Madleen protest ship, a French-Palestinian member of the European parliament, Rima Hassan, was temporarily held in solitary confinement, in Neve Tirza prison after writing 'Free Palestine' on a cell wall. 'She was moved to a small, windowless cell with extremely poor hygienic conditions and has been denied access to the prison yard,' Adalah said. It added that Hassan had been moved out of isolation on Wednesday. There was no immediate response from the Israeli foreign ministry to the reports of solitary confinement.
